Rage rooms: can smashing stuff up really help to relieve anger and stress?

If you find it hard to count to 10 when anger bubbles up, a new trend offers a more hands-on approach. Rage rooms are cropping up across the UK, allowing punters to smash seven bells out of old TVs, plates and furniture.

Such pay-to-destroy ventures are thought to have originated in Japan in 2008, but have since gone global. In the UK alone venues can be found in locations from Birmingham to Brighton, with many promoting destruction as a stress-relieving experience.

According to Smash It Rage Rooms in south-east London, where a 30-minute solo session costs £50, “each smash is a cathartic release, a burst of pure, primal joy”.

“We are at capacity – we were looking for another venue because we can’t keep up with demand,” said Amelia Smewing, who set up the business with her husband after exploring ways to help their son cope with PTSD.

Rob Clark, an operations director at Urban Xtreme Ltd, said the popularity of its Rage Room was growing year on year, with customers ranging from younger people looking for a unique experience, to groups of women celebrating break-ups, and people using the space as a “healthy outlet” for stress or mental health challenges.

Clark said many customers were navigating tough personal challenges. “The feedback we get is consistently good – the Rage Room gives them a safe, constructive way to release pent-up anger and frustration, and it’s making a genuine difference to their mental wellbeing,” he said, adding several youth care homes regularly bring their teenagers, while a handful of therapists actively refer clients when traditional talking therapy is not enough.

Lucy Bee, the founder of Rage Rooms Leamington Spa said her venue also hosted visits from schools and children’s homes. But people also just come for fun. “It’s so against how we’re conditioned to behave,” she said. “It is so naughty.”

Like other venues, Bee said, the typical “rager” is female. “We’re talking early 40s, woman, a couple of kids, good job,” she said.

Bee added that having trained as a holistic therapist she found many women experience guilt and shame over feeling angry.

“A lot of women … are at breaking point, permanently teetering, living in survival mode. And this gives them a way to just let it out,” Bee said, adding that for some people who were struggling the experience could act as a gateway towards seeking further help.

Despite having a happy home life, I get frustrated over house repairs, woeful train services, and the state of the nation. So I don a protective outfit, pull down my visor and enter one of Bee’s rage rooms.

Within seconds I am turning wine bottles into explosions of glass, laughing in surprise at myself. But I don’t enjoy the noise and am thinking more about the mess than experiencing a release.

Experts, too, have qualms.

Last year Dr Sophie Kjærvik, now at the Norwegian Center for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies in Oslo, co-authored a review into what activities fuel or douse rage. She said the evidence suggested “venting” was actually counterproductive.

“You’re activating your body in a way that your brain can interpret as that you’re getting more angry,” she said. “We found that doing meditation and mindfulness and muscle relaxation activities are way more productive ways of dealing with anger.” Kjærvik said cognitive behavioural therapy was also very efficient.

Dr Ryan Martin, a dean at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and an author of several books on anger, said people who relied on catharsis stayed angrier for longer, and were more likely to lash out aggressively after the fact. “I think the problem is it feels good, so people assume it’s good for them,” he said. “But at the same time, other things that we know might feel good when we’re emotional, like drinking, overeating, … aren’t necessarily good for us either.”

Prof Brad Bushman of Ohio State University, who co-authored the review with Kjærvik, also raised concerns. “When people feed their anger in these rage rooms, they’re just practising how to behave more aggressively,” he said.

Smewing emphasised that rage rooms were a conditioned environment. “Just because they’ve smashed up the air fryer at the rage room doesn’t mean they’re going to go home and smash up the air fryer in their kitchen,” she said.

Suzy Reading, a chartered member of the British Psychological Society and author of the book How to be Selfish, said it was not that anger should not be expressed, but that there were many ways to do this, including writing and breathing exercises. Reading also said while rage rooms may offer an outlet for stress they cost money and did not provide insights into the causes of such feelings.

“If there isn’t an understanding of what caused it, then we just go back into our home lives and our work lives and our communities, and nothing changes,” she said. “And for a lot of women, [the cause is] going to be unmet needs.”

Reading said it could be important to move through some of the feelings of anger in order to have effective conversations. “We want to regulate our nervous system so that we can articulate well,” she said.